How do we apportion growth in our County?

Today at 3 PM, the ten cities of our County (and the County itself) will send representatives to the Ventura Council of Governments (or VCOG using the initials so beloved by bureaucrats.) The goal will be to find an equitable (or at least acceptable) plan to “share the pain” of allocating future growth of housing in our County over the next nine years.

The arbitrary number of 28,451 “units” is Ventura County’s share of our region’s share of the total estimated growth expected in California between 2005-2014. The formula for arriving at this number is, of course, widely and bitterly disputed. State government promotes building more housing to ease the cost of owning a home, reduce long commutes and address overcrowding and slum housing.

Of course, we the people reserve the right to have other opinions. The contrasting views are what makes life interesting in a democracy. Here’s what two Ventura County Star readers had to say about a story on Monday about the VCOG “Regional Housing Needs Assessment” controversy:

· “Thousand Oaks could easily add the required units with smart redevelopment. Thousand Oaks Blvd could become a people friendly sector with mixed use buildings replacing single storey strip malls . . . All VC cities need to shift from the master planned big suburban developments they've been approving to smaller, friendly, centralized units that meet the needs of less affluent residents, while adding charm and community possibility.”

· “One problem with all who push to add housing in our county is the total lack of understanding regarding future availability of water and only minimal comprehension as to impact on traffic, schools, law enforcement, etc. I've found most long range planning to be seriously flawed --- and most is purposely skewed to sell the ideas of adding more people to our county.”



Both viewpoints are alive and well in the County and each of our communities. Is there an answer?

Without a shared vision of our future, that will be difficult. But if we don’t find a way to at least bridge our differences, we lose local leverage. The Southern California Association of Governments (with the truly distasteful initials SCAG) already has a formula that apportions where new housing should go – and without agreement on an alternative, that’s the one that will be used. Of course, individual cities have the right to appeal their “allocation” – but there is no guarantee that they will do any better appealing to decision-makers representing the six county region. In fact, not surprisingly, the other five counties think Ventura County should take a lot more of the growth than the numbers we are unhappy with.

So stay tuned. Today’s meeting will be a key test for whether, as Ben Franklin said about the Declaration of Independence: “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."